South Carolina’s U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson voted to provide medical care to illegal aliens. See solid coverage of the vote and issue at Open Congress. (Open Congress is a good site — government teachers, bookmark it.)
Do as I shout out inappropriately, not as I do . . . (Joe Wilson)
September 13, 2009
Leave a Comment » | 
Government, Health care, medicine, President Obama, U.S. House of Representatives | Tagged: Health Care Reform, Illegal Aliens, Inappropriate Behavior, Joe Wilson (South Carolina), President Obama, U.S. Congress | 
Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Stimulus helped thousands in California’s East Bay
September 11, 2009This is close to how it was supposed to work.
Oakland didn’t burn.
Kids got jobs, most of them with good experience.
How will the reflexive Obama-haters complain about it? Wrong youth? Wrong place? Wrong jobs? I’ll wager they can whine about any good news.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Sara Ann Maxwell.
Leave a Comment » | Economics, Education, Government, History, Politics, President Obama | Tagged: East Bay, Economics, History, Jobs, Oakland California, Politics, President Obama, Stimulus | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
I get e-mail, on Obama’s education speech
September 9, 2009A friend notes:
We made [our daughter]l watch it at home, because her school — a Lutheran/Missouri Synod school — wouldn’t show it. (Of course.)
She has always LOVED President Obama for very eight year old reasons. He has two little girls. His wife is pretty. He bought his daughters a puppy.
Well, after hearing him say “do your homework”…”try again”…”obey your parents and teachers”…”work hard”…”never stop trying”…etc…
She said…
“Daddy, I wish Bush was President again.“
Now just sit back and let that sink in.
Leave a Comment » | Education, History, Politics, President Obama | Tagged: Education, Education Speech, History, Politics, President Obama | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Neither snow, nor rain, nor fact, shall detain the crazies from their frothing against Obama
September 8, 2009On September 7th, 2009 Misfit4Peace says:I was listening to some talk radio show tonight when I had to run to the store for a few things…So Im sitting in the parking lot..and this guy calls in…talks about his wife being a teacher…and the meno she got about Obamass visiting schools…
It seems the schools..some by force if they dont want a major budget cut..are making the kids write letters to Obamass telling him how proud they are of him..how they hope healt care is past so they will be able to go to good doctors..and how they all promise to serve him.
The kids are all made to learn the history of Obamass with of course all the lies and bs that goes with it…Songs where..it seems..written about him and the children will be singing them before and after the broadcast.
The older students…age 12 and up..will be ask to (forced really or face a bad grade and God knows what else) to sign a pledge to his new government!…
I just sat there for a moment….glad my daughter was out of school and my g/son isnt in yet.Freedom is another way to God…A corrupt government is a straight way to hell.
How you can tell this is a hoax:
- It alleges a guy talking about a memo his teacher wife got; what guy reads his wife’s memos?
- School districts are not part of the federal government. Federal funds are a small part of any school district’s budget. No amount of letter writing from a district to the president can affect the district’s budget.
- If there were a way for letter writing to affect school budgets, threats of cuts in budgets for political action are a violation of the Hatch Act. Crooks who tried to get around the Hatch Act wouldn’t write a memorandum about it.
- No school is forcing kids to learn Obama’s history. History texts take years to write. Generally the newest texts run about four years behind national elections. No, there cannot be a federal curriculum on the topic — that’s against tradition, and against federal law. No agency may write curriculum for local schools — that’s the job of the local school districts.
- Music has been cut out of most schools. Who would write a song for the kids to sing to Obama? Who would lead the singing? This hoaxster hasn’t been in the schools in 40 years.
- Districts are moving to policies requiring no failing grades. Without pointing fingers to blame anyone, let’s just note that it’s been coming for the last six years. Consequently, a change in policy to require bad grades if kids don’t write a fawning letter to a president, ain’t gonna happen. Besides, if this were doable in any fashion where the federal government has no say in local curriculum, Cheney would have done it years ago for Bush. This Ron Paul fan, Misfit4Peace, has been toking way too much.
- Obama’s not on the state test, any state test. What teacher has time to add stuff on Obama when it’s not going to be covered on the test? No principal would stand for that.
Freedom? This guy surrendered his freedom to inanity long ago. Reality isn’t even a memory to these people.
It gets worse. There’s the guy who complains that Obama shouldn’t be urging his kindergartener to stay in school — oh, the pressure! There’s the guy who looks at Obama’s line about how policemen and soldiers need to have a good education, and complains,
One of them, I consider to be a hired murderer, and another to be a paid bully. But he calls them “good” jobs.
Cops and soldiers, he considers to be bullies and murderers?
We need a lot of healing. The critics need a lot of healing. Not Obama’s speech, not Obama’s policies, nothing Obama ever did opened these wounds.
1 Comment | Dissent, Education, President Obama, Rampant stupidity, War on Education | Tagged: Dissent, Education, Hate, Politics, President Obama, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Indoctrinate yourself! Obama’s education speech, full text
September 8, 2009Unedited, direct from the White House website:
Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Back to School EventArlington, Virginia
September 8, 2009The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.”So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work — that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.
Should you watch it? Here are the trailers:
Resources:
- Commentary from Christian Science Monitor The Vote Blog
- White House information — suggested activities, links and information for live streaming:
THE PRESIDENT’S BACK-TO-SCHOOL MESSAGE TO AMERICA’S STUDENTS
Help get America’s students engaged! On Tuesday, September 8 — the first day of school for many students — the President will talk directly to students across the country on the importance of taking responsibility for their education, challenging them to set goals and do everything they can to succeed. We want to make sure that as many schools and classrooms nationwide can participate in this special opportunity, so we are making the President’s address and all the information that comes with it available as widely as possible. Whether you are a teacher, a school board member, or a member of the media, find information below to help you watch and be engaged with the President in welcoming our students back to school.
The President’s Message
- We have posted the President’s prepared remarks, read his message encouraging students to take personal responsibility for their educations.
When
- Tuesday, September 8th, at 12:00 PM (EDT)
How to Watch
- The President’s message will be streamed live on WhiteHouse.gov/live, and broadcast live on C-Span
- Downloadable video of the speech will be made available on this page later that day as it becomes available
- For school districts hoping to access the satellite feed, it will be available beginning at 11:00 AM (EDT) using the following coordinates:
* Galaxy 28/Transponder 17, Slot C (9 MHz)
* Uplink Frequency 14344.5 Horizontal
* Downlink Frequency 12044.5 VerticalClassroom Engagement Resources
- Menu of classroom activities for students in grades preK-6 to stimulate discussion on the importance of education in students’ lives
- Menu of classroom activities for students in grades 7-12 to stimulate discussion on the importance of education in students’ lives
- A video contest for students will be launched soon – details will be available at http://www.ed.gov
Spread the knowledge:
2 Comments | Accuracy, DBQ sources, Dropouts, Education, Politics, President Obama | Tagged: Accuracy, DBQ sources, Dropouts, Education, Politics, President Obama | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Should students pay attention to Obama’s speech?
September 6, 2009The snark snipers are winning. Dallas’s CBS affiliate, Channel 11, has a poll on whether students ought to pay attention to Obama’s speech to students on Tuesday.
Do you think North Texas schools should have their students watch president Obama’s speech directed to children?
“No, it might get political” is winning right now.
The correct answer would be “Duh! Yes.” Kids who can resist “Just Say No” sex education can resist Obama’s plea to them to study hard and not dropout, as the conservatives appear to want them to, in the conservative War on Education.
Go vote in the poll as long as it’s there.
Urge others to vote, too:
3 Comments | Barack Obama, Dropouts, Education, Polling and Public Opinion, Rampant stupidity, War on Education | Tagged: Education, Poll, President Obama, Rampant stupidity, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Van Jones: LGF got it right
September 6, 2009Van Jones’s advantages, added together, summed too closely to the detrimental sum of having him as an advisor in the executive branch, I think.
But Glenn Beck’s unprincipled attack on Jones as a “9/11 truther” brought up issues that were not among the baggage Jones carried. Little Green Footballs explained that Jones’s statement that he didn’t call for an investigation of George Bush seems to be accurate. LGF has no authors who trend to the liberal side (are there even any Dems there?).
With such a target-rich guy as Jones, why does Beck go with the least credible evidence possible? When the facts flow your way, why make stuff up? Beck’s bizarre claims about DDT offer more evidence the guy has just floated around the bend in the reality and ethical river. More on that later.
Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub said Little Green Footballs was right? Better spread that news!
2 Comments | Accuracy, Cost of Green, Environmental protection, Green Politics, Hoaxes, Politics | Tagged: Accuracy, Cost of Green, Glenn Beck, Green Politics, Hoaxes, Politics, President Obama, Van Jones | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Whom The Gods Destroy They First Make Mad Dept., Day of Labor Division
September 3, 2009Looney Tunes should sue to get back the good name of “looney.”
1. Neil Simpson at Eternity Matters continues to court anti-socialism. No, not “contrary to socialism”, but “anti-social” raised to the maximum. Now Simpson disavows education quality and Boy Scout-style citizenship, all in a whiny complaint about President Obama’s actually paying attention to school kids. Simpson’s complaints in Texas are highly ironic, considering that conservatives in the Texas legislature demand that Texas kids participate in exactly the kind of discussions that the Department of Education now urges.
According to the U.S. Department of Education:
During this special address, the president will speak directly to the nation’s children and youth about persisting and succeeding in school. The president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning.
“Oh, noes!” we might hear Simpson say. We can’t have our nation’s youth “persisting and succeeding in school.” Can’t have them “work hard,” and “take responsibility for their learning.”
One more deeply hypocritical demonstration that, for Simpson and his colleagues in whine, it’s all about being a sore loser and a carbuncle on the derriere of America, and not about policy at all.
Obama might be expected to plug charter schools again, a position Simpson would find good if Simpson had a reasoning cell left in his body. Not that Obama’s support of charter schools is a good idea, just that Simpson previously has expressed similar views, which he now would have to eschew, since Obama adopted them. Of course, it’s not about Obama. Right.
The Department of Education release has other details you should check out, if you’re interested:
The U.S. Department of Education encourages students of all ages, teachers, and administrators to participate in this historic moment by watching the president deliver the address, which will be broadcast live on the White House Web site (http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/) and on C-SPAN at 12:00 p.m., ET. We also encourage educators to use this moment to help students get focused and inspired to begin the new academic year. The Department of Education offers educators a menu of classroom activities—created by its teachers-in-residence, the Teaching Ambassador Fellows—to help engage students in the address and stimulate classroom discussions about the importance of education.
To learn more, please see the following:
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Classroom Activities (Pre-K – 6)
PDF (115K) | MS Word (119K)
- Classroom Activities (7 – 12)
That is, if you agree that education is important. (Oh, don’t even go to the post where Simpson starts arguing that “survival of the fittest” is tantamount to killing everybody else. Doesn’t this guy ever think?)
2. Making the case for Birther Control once more, Orly Taitz managed to get in front of a judge in some Texas court with her inane claims about Obama’s birth certificate. She’s not a Texas lawyer, she didn’t bother to get a Texas lawyer to sign in with her, she broke almost every rule possible, but the judge bent over backwards to be nice to her — and she still whines. Read the events at Dispatches from the the Culture Wars. You can almost decipher it at Orly Taitz’s blog, but she doesn’t even allow friendly posts without editing there. Get the facts from Brayton.
3. Meanwhile, riding the crest of the idiocy wave generated by inanities like Taitz’s and Simpson’s, these guys are gearing up for a violent confrontation with an evil, militant force, that isn’t even under discussion (if you read their links). Go read it. It’s the seedbed of homegrown terrorism.
4. GOP candidate for governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell repudiated the masters thesis he wrote for Pat Robertson’s Regent University. One by one, he disavows each of the offensive things he wrote then, claiming that he’s healed, or something, since then.
After McDonnell repudiates the education he got at Regent U, do you think the school will use him as an example of a graduate success in recruiting?
Already-elected GOP governors aren’t doing too well, either.
5. The Sedalia, Missouri band t-shirt flap keeps some people in stitches. I’m not sure whether it’s encouraging so many cross-stitchers show sanity on the issue, or discouraging that a few still remain deeply mired in darkness, claiming evolution is a problem. (See earlier post here.)
Sure, it’s all sign of apocalypse, but not the apocalypse most people worry about.
30 Comments | Birth Certificate, children, Citizenship, Education, Evolution, First Amendment, Government, Higher education, History, Politics, Rampant stupidity | Tagged: Birth Certificate, Birthers, Education, Higher education, Politics, President Obama, Rampant stupidity, University Recruiting | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Wirtism? Summer political crazies explained in history
August 30, 2009Santayana’s Ghost has been restless these past two months. Now we know why: Summer 2009 replayed summer 1934.
Micheal Hiltzik explained it in a column in the Los Angeles Times:
To me they’re merely the latest examples of a phenomenon that might be called Wirtism.
If you find the term unfamiliar, that’s because I just coined it to honor the memory of William A. Wirt. Wirt’s day in the sun came back in 1934, when the obscure Midwestern blowhard placed himself at the center of a political maelstrom by “discovering” a plot by members of Franklin Roosevelt’s Brain Trust to launch a Bolshevik takeover of the United States.
That Wirt’s yarn was transparently absurd didn’t keep it from being taken seriously on the front pages of newspapers coast to coast, including the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. He gave speeches, wrote a book and went to Washington to give personal testimony at a standing-room-only congressional hearing.
If that reminds you of the overly solicitous treatment given by the press, cable news programs and Republican office holders to purveyors of such lurid claptrap as the Obama birth certificate story or the fantasy of healthcare “death panels,” now you know why it pays to study history.
How did it end? Not soon enough, or well enough, but it ended:
“Roosevelt is only the Kerensky of this revolution,” he quoted them. (Kerensky was the provisional leader of Russia just before the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.) The hoodwinked president would be permitted to stay in office, they said, “until we are ready to supplant him with a Stalin.”
Those words caused an immediate sensation. Wirt hedged on naming the treasonous “Brain Trusters” — which only intensified the public mania. Into the vacuum of information poured supposition masquerading as fact (certainly a familiar phenomenon today). This newspaper, then a pillar of Republicanism, gave Wirt the benefit of the doubt on the grounds that “the activities of the ‘brain trust’ during the past year fit neatly into the Communistic scheme” he described — a reminder that the most potent fabrications are those that confirm what the listener wants to believe.
For that’s what Wirt’s story was — a fabrication. Hauled before Congress, he said he heard of the plot during a party at a friend’s home in Virginia. The other guests, mostly low-level government employees without any connection to the Brain Trust, subsequently testified that none of them could have mentioned Kerensky or Stalin even if they wished, because Wirt monopolized the dinner-table conversation with a four-hour harangue about monetary policy.
Now you know. So don’t act stupidly.
1 Comment | Accuracy, Dissent, Health care, History, medicine, Politics, President Obama, Propaganda, Rampant stupidity, Santayana's ghost | Tagged: Accuracy, Dissent, Health Care Reform, History, Journalism, Politics, President Obama, Propaganda, Rampant stupidity, Santayana's ghost, Scare-mongering | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
MomsRising Healthcare Truth Squad
August 22, 2009I get e-mail. In all the discouraging folderol on the health care debate, it’s nice to know that a few people are carrying the torch for democracy and good republican government like these ladies.
Red caped mothers and others in Baltimore, before the U.S.S. Constellation, campaigning to dispel false rumors about health care reform, on August 19, 2009. Image from MomsRising.com
Watch for the ladies in red capes. Barney Frank won’t ask what planet they spend their time on, I’ll wager.
Note links to more information, or to join in their merriment, in the letter.
Faster than a toddler crawling toward an uncovered electrical outlet and more powerful than a teenager’s social networking skills, moms across the country have been fanning out to dispel the unfounded rumors, misconceptions, and lies about healthcare reform.
MomsRising Healthcare Truth Squad members, dressed in red capes, have been distributing powerful truth flyers across the nation to passersby to educate them about what healthcare reform will really do, and about how it will help to ensure the economic security of families across the country.
“I must admit that I don’t normally wear a cape in public, but it was oddly empowering. We knew we were having an impact on the larger conversation about healthcare when a news camera starting following us around. I definitely recommend life as a superhero,” say Donna, a cape wearing SuperMom for Healthcare.
*Let’s give our caped myth-busting moms some “online backup” by Truth Tagging friends with healthcare reform myths & facts today–it’s a virtual distribution of the same facts that the MomsRising Healthcare Truth Squad members are handing out in-person:
http://momsrising.democracyinaction.org/o/1768/tellafriend.jsp?tell_a_friend_KEY=4728
It’s going to take thousands of super heroines speaking up in order to get the healthcare debate back on track. We can’t all be out on the streets in capes, so please take a moment now to spread the word and bust some myths via email to friends and family by clicking the link above.
Why’s this so important to moms right now? Over 46 million people in our nation don’t have any healthcare coverage at all, including millions of children. Not only are families struggling with getting children the healthcare coverage they need for a healthy start, but 7 out of 10 women are either uninsured, underinsured, or are in significant debt due to healthcare costs. In fact, a leading cause of bankruptcy is healthcare costs — and over 70% of those who do go bankrupt due to healthcare costs had insurance at the start of their illness. Clearly we need to fix our broken healthcare system!
Don’t forget to help put some more truth into the mix of the national dialogue on healthcare reform right now:
http://momsrising.democracyinaction.org/o/1768/tellafriend.jsp?tell_a_friend_KEY=4728
Onward!
–Kristin, Joan, Donna, Ashley, Julia, Dionna, Katie, Anita, Sarah, Mary, and the entire MomsRising TeamP.S. We’ve been hearing so much positive feedback about our caped crusading moms that it might be time to lead a giant march of moms on the National Capitol Mall. Tell us what you think: http://www.momsrising.org/blog/bust-a-myth-tag-a-friend-with-the-truth-about-healthcare/
P.P.S. Want to get more involved with the MomsRising Healthcare Truth Squad members? Click here: http://momsrising.democracyinaction.org/o/1768/t/9251/signUp.jsp?key=4284
P.P.P.S. When you go to the Truth Squad Tag page, you can also see a video of our MomsRising Healthcare Truth Squad in action wearing capes! http://momsrising.democracyinaction.org/o/1768/tellafriend.jsp?tell_a_friend_KEY=4727
Here’s the video:
24 Comments | Barack Obama, Campaigns, Citizenship, Current History, Death Panels, Debunking, Democracy in action, Free speech, Government, Hoaxes, Humor, Law, Legislation, Politics, Poverty, Public health, U.S. Constitution, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate | Tagged: Accuracy, Citizenship, Health Care Reform, Legislation, MomsRising, Politics, President Obama | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
End the hoaxes, part 2a: Great need for health care reform, Flagler County Free Clinic
August 21, 2009Health care professionals and legislators struggled with the need for reform of health care for the past 40+ years. Tweaking of specific, small parts produced no great reduction in health care cost inflation. More millions of people fall out of the pool of people who have access to health care in a timely and affordable way.
And yet people claim not to see the need?
Faith Coleman of Flagler County Free Clinic: "Faith Coleman's ordeal as an uninsured cancer patient drove her to help others without health insurance." (CNN Image)
Meet Faith Coleman. She was a young nurse, delivering health care for many different employers, when she was struck with kidney cancer. Since she worked part time for so many, no one offered her health insurance as an employee.
Faith Coleman could mortgage her home for the $35,000 to save her life.
Her cancer is in remission.
But she then organized health providers in her town to take care of others in her situation. Week in and week out, more than a hundred people show up to her essentially free clinic, trying to crawl out of the cracks in the health care delivery floor. CNN featured the story.
I have been given another chance, and I felt that it was important for me to make a difference and to help other people,” she said.
So after her recovery in 2004, Coleman approached Dr. John Canakaris. The local physician with 60 years of experience had been treating the indigent population for years. Canakaris was eager to reach more patients in need.
The two worked together to establish the Flagler County Free Clinic in Bunnell, Florida, which provides medical care for the uninsured. It has treated more than 6,700 patients.
The clinic opened its doors in February 2005, with eight volunteers treating eight patients. Since then, it has expanded to 120 volunteers who see about 80 patients every other weekend. Coleman said she’s seen an increase in the number of patients at the clinic, which serves people who meet federal poverty guidelines.
Go read the story, look at the videos, and help out where you can.
One sure-fire way you can help: Stand up for health care reform. We need it now. In Texas, each person with health care insurance pays $1,800 a year to mend the holes in the safety net — we need to reduce that cost (for my family, that’s $7,200/year).
Stand up for health care reform now, and stand against the hoaxes claiming we have no need, or that expanded programs won’t help.
2 Comments | Health care, History, medicine, Politics, President Obama | Tagged: Faith Coleman, Flagler County Free Clinic, H.R. 3200, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, Hoaxes, Politics, President Obama | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Pritchett confesses scare tactics, shows lunacy
August 21, 2009I sent my response to Lou Pritchett. [Free Republic folks: Be sure to read that response to Pritchett. A typical corporate people-hating hack — if you think he sympathizes with you, you’re more than a few flakes shy of a full box of Ivory] He responded in e-mail:
Since my ‘you scare me’ letter got your shorts in such a knot I hope the following two will increase the discomfort. Lou Pritchett
PUBLISHED IN FLORIDA TIMES/UNION NOV. 6, 2008, A FEW DAYS AFTER THE ELECTION
Farewell America–We’ll really miss you!
Farewell to the America we have loved for two centuries and hello to a new far-left driven president who promised change and will most likely deliver on it,
Farewell, to an America driven by individuals with strong work ethics to one which will resemble French, German, and British societies where big government, big welfare, union controlled labor, four day work weeks, ten week vacations are the rule. Societies which constantly ask “—where’s mine?”
Farewell to capitalism, job creation, lower taxes, smaller government, fewer entitlements, safer cities, personal responsibility and sound work ethics.
Farewell to adequate military defense spending to protect us from our enemies who wish and plan to kill us.
Farewell to close ties with our best and only friend in the middle east—Israel.
Farewell to maintaining a conservative Supreme Court.
Farewell to any chance of keeping Health Care out of the hands and control of government.
Farewell to the famous American standard of living–a magnet to the world.
Farewell to conservative ‘talk radio’ as an antidote to the biased media. The Fairness Doctrine will return.
Farewell to any hope for educating our college kids in something other than liberal mush.
Today is truly a sad day for millions of Americans as they slowly allow the election results to sink in. Today, for the first time in modern history, America took a giant step toward changing not only the direction, but the entire character of the country from free enterprise driven to big government driven.
Our only hope is to start now planning and building a strong conservative base which can reclaim the Presidency and Congress in four years and start repairing the damage. God help us if we fail. Lou Pritchett (www.loupritchett.com)
PUBLISHED IN FLORIDA TIMES/UNION AUGUST 3, 2009
Take heart America! In only six months President Obama has finally awakened the ‘600 pound average American gorilla’ by his “Ready, Fire, Aim” approach with the auto industry, the unions, the banks, Guantanamo, health care, czars, credit cards, and energy. His strategy of deliberately overloading the system with program after program designed to both confuse and deceive the public is right out of the anarchist play book and clearly proves how dangerous he, his administration and his agenda are. A universal truth states that the best indication of what a man will do in the future is what a man has done in the past. Given this, another three and a half years of Obama will be totally disastrous, both financially and morally, for this country. Our only hope is to dump the Congressional clowns and elect adults in 2010 in order to stop the bleeding and then to finish the job by sending Obama back to the thing he does best–community organizing—in Chicago in 2012. Failing this, we fail our children and we fail our country. Lou Pritchett
“Anarchist handbook?” Well, if Lou Pritchett is reading such things, you can bet it’s not because he wants to know what anarchists might do to him. He’s looking for tactics.
Some of the things he claims he fears now, a rational patriot might hope for. Talk radio replaced by fair discussion? Certainly George Washington would have been encouraged by that.
If Pritchett goes on long enough, he starts making Obama look good. Sunshine does not favor the pathogens.
Voltaire’s prayer still applies; one worries when so many come up looking so foolish, however.
One wishes Pritchett would go back to lecturing businesses on how to partner with Wal-Mart. The cynic in him appears to have abandoned all hope in any entrepreneurial spirit left in America. Too bad.
Can somebody get Pritchett a library card?
17 Comments | Accuracy, Hoaxes, Political Smear, Politics, President Obama, Presidents, Propaganda, Rampant stupidity | Tagged: Accuracy, Hoaxes, Political Smear, Politics, President Obama, Presidents, Propaganda | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
End the hoaxes, part 1: Health care costs cause bankruptcies
August 17, 2009Health care costs, especially coupled with lack of adequate insurance even for insured people, drove our nation to the brink of economic collapse.
We need health care reform now, to help get our economy back on its feet.
“Unless you’re a Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, you’re one illness away from financial ruin in this country,” says lead author Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., of the Harvard Medical School, in Cambridge, Mass. “If an illness is long enough and expensive enough, private insurance offers very little protection against medical bankruptcy, and that’s the major finding in our study.”
Woolhandler and her colleagues surveyed a random sample of 2,314 people who filed for bankruptcy in early 2007, looked at their court records, and then interviewed more than 1,000 of them. Health.com: Expert advice on getting health insurance and affordable care for chronic pain.
They concluded that 62.1 percent of the bankruptcies were medically related because the individuals either had more than $5,000 (or 10 percent of their pretax income) in medical bills, mortgaged their home to pay for medical bills, or lost significant income due to an illness. On average, medically bankrupt families had $17,943 in out-of-pocket expenses, including $26,971 for those who lacked insurance and $17,749 who had insurance at some point.
Overall, three-quarters of the people with a medically-related bankruptcy had health insurance, they say.
“That was actually the predominant problem in patients in our study — 78 percent of them had health insurance, but many of them were bankrupted anyway because there were gaps in their coverage like co-payments and deductibles and uncovered services,” says Woolhandler. “Other people had private insurance but got so sick that they lost their job and lost their insurance.” Health.com: Where the money goes — A breast cancer donation guide.
Personal bankruptcies played a large role in the banking crisis of late last year and early 2009. Personal bankruptcies played a huge role in the collapse of mortgage securities markets, which prompted the banking crises.
If anything, current proposals do not go far enough in reforming insurance.
“To ignore the fact that medical costs are an underlying problem of the economic meltdown we’ve experienced would be to turn a blind eye to a significant problem that we can solve,” she said [Elizabeth Edwards, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress].
Edwards was joined by Steffie Woolhandler, a co-author of the Harvard study [discussed above] who sharply criticized current reform efforts.
“Private insurance is a defective product that leaves millions of middle-class families vulnerable to financial ruin. Unfortunately, the health reform plan now under consideration in the House would do little to address this grave problem,” Woolhandler said.
Without new legislation along the lines of the Democratic proposals in Congress, our nation faces economic doom.
Phony assertions of “death panels,” phony assertions of “creeping socialism,” phony claims about bad care in England, Canada and France, are all tools that help push our nation to economic failure.
Please do not be hoaxed.
Do a good deed today: Share this information
52 Comments | Economics, Government, Health care, Hoaxes, medicine, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate | Tagged: Bankruptcies, Congress, Death Panels, Economics, H.R. 3200, Health Care Reform, Legislation, medicine, Mortgages, President Obama | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Obama on health care: With an eye and an ear to history; with heart to those who hurt
August 16, 2009Did you catch Obama’s op-ed in the New York Times yesterday?
OUR nation is now engaged in a great debate about the future of health care in America.
Of what famous speech does that line remind you?
Obama is looking to past presidents’ efforts to push legislation, too — learning from the failures and hoping not to repeat (think Wilson and the campaign to ratify the Treaty of Versailles), learning from successes and hoping to expand (think of Lyndon Johnson and the creation of grants to college students).
Mostly, Obama’s hoping to give a boost to health care reform efforts slowed by the vicious, false rumor campaign against it.
See what Obama himself wrote, below the fold.
4 Comments | Death Panels, History, Hoaxes, Legislation, medicine, Public health, U.S. Constitution | Tagged: Death Panels, H.R. 3200, Health care, Health Insurance Reform, Hoaxes, Legislation, Newspapers, President Obama | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Think you have health insurance? Wrong
August 7, 2009Baseline Scenario lays out the facts: People fear government reform of health care because they think it will interfere with their own health insurance. Such people need to understand that they don’t have health insurance, and a broader government plan is the only saftey net they have to protect them from going naked against major health expenses.
Right now, it appears that the biggest barrier to health care reform is people who think that it will hurt them. According to a New York Times poll, “69 percent of respondents in the poll said they were concerned that the quality of their own care would decline if the government created a program that covers everyone.” Since most Americans currently have health insurance, they see reform as a poverty program – something that helps poor people and hurts them. If that’s what you think, then this post is for you.
You do not have health insurance. Let me repeat that. You do not have health insurance.
Just one more point in a series of misconceptions, misperceptions, and unwarranted listening to false claims about health care and legislation designed to save our tails. James Kwak and others at The Baseline Scenario do a good job explaining economics in the U.S. today. In this piece he makes the point that in terms of health care, we are all among “the poor” (save for those few of you who make more than $1 million a year and have done for the past decade).
Ask not for whom the health insurance reform bill tolls; it tolls for you.
10 Comments | Economics, Health care, Legislation, medicine, Poverty, President Obama | Tagged: Economics, H.R. 3200, Health care, Health Care Reform, Legislation, medicine, Poverty, President Obama, Recession | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 